Memento
by Lt. Basil
Summary: "Be careful with that! It's special." "What's so special about it?" "It was my dad's. It's one of the only things I have left of him." Kanan wondered if Ezra knew what his father's helmet actually was. (Kanan and Sabine find Ezra's helmet collection). One-shot for now.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: RANDOM PLOT BUNNIES OF RANDOMNESS ARE ASSAULTING ME FROM ALL SIDES AND I CAN'T ESCAPE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!**

***ahem* My brain feels like it's overstuffed with fic ideas that probably are never going to leave the ground *grumble* (stupid brain…). But anyway, that has nothing to do with this! So… yeah.**

**One of my reviewers on **_**Precious Moments, **_**Lime Gap, gave me this idea. Thank you! Inspiration can be hard for me to come by, sometimes, and I appreciate every little bit that I can get. So thank you.**

**Now to the whole audience: Review!**

"Let's see… twelve ration bars, a half a crate of protatoes, three tubes of pastebread, a box of exo-protein wafers…" Ezra made a face, "a couple pieces of synthsteak, a little soypro, some nutripaste… ugh, why can't we get some _real _food?" He scowled down at the synthetic rations distastefully, wishing for the hundredth time that organic food didn't spoil so quickly. It would have been nice to have some fruit or something… oh well.

Sighing, Ezra typed the information into the datapad in his hand. He scratched the back of his neck, slightly irritated. _Stupid Zeb, ratting on me like that… that traitor… _His face darkened even more. _Now I'm stuck back here. Oh, he will _pay _for this…_

"Everything going alright?" Ezra jumped as Kanan's voice yanked him out of his plotting. Whipping around, he saw his teacher leaning over the railing with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk. Standing next to him was Sabine, grinning at him in her usual teasing fashion. He made a face.

"Sure, milk it all you want," he grumbled, keying a few more items into the datapad. "When this is over, I'm gonna _kill _Zeb!" he added under his breath. Kanan frowned at him and moved to descend the ladder. Upon reaching the ground, he looked the boy straight in the eye with a questioning expression on his face.

"What was that?"

Ezra paled. "N-nothing!" he said quickly.

Sabine jumped down from her spot on the ladder and landed beside Kanan, still grinning. "Ha! Kill Zeb? I'd like to see you try!" She laughed. Ezra stuck his tongue out at her. Despite himself, Kanan released a low chuckle and smiled slightly at the exchange.

"What's the damage?" the Jedi questioned, nodding his head at the crates behind Ezra. The boy shrugged and glanced down at his datapad.

"It looks like we're almost out of… well, _everything. _Food, water, battery packs, cleaning supplies – you name it. It's pretty much gone." He lifted his head to stare at the duo. "I _told _you that we should stop at Abafar, but did you listen to me? No. As usual. Anyway…" he glanced behind him. "It looks like we're in line for a shopping trip…"

"Hey Ez, you missed one!" Sabine called. Ezra raised his head to look at her, confused. She was standing beside an unopened crate shoved back in the corner and tapping its lid. "This is one of the ones we lifted at Gala, right? There's not much use in stealing it if you don't check what's _inside._"

"I already checked; it's just a bunch of junk," Ezra said, a little too quickly. "Don't bother with it. I already threw it out."

"You did _what?_" Kanan demanded, incredulous. Ezra winced and glanced at his hands. "You just threw it out? Without telling us what it was?" He eyed the boy incredulously. Ezra gulped and wrung his hands. He could tell that his master wasn't buying it.

"Sabine, open the crate," he informed the girl. She nodded and lifted the lid. Ezra's eyes grew wide with alarm. Kanan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hang on… what… _Ezra!_" He flinched at Sabine's voice, turning to look glumly at the opened crate. The mandolorian lifted a beat-up stormtrooper helmet out of the box and gave him a questioning look. He smiled sheepishly.

"It was empty when I looked inside it," he started, "so I thought I could…" He was cut off by Sabine's laughter.

"_This _is what you were trying so hard to hide?" she snickered. "You could've just said so!" She tossed the helmet in her hands to the stunned-looking Jedi padawan. He caught it easily, staring at her with a blank expression on his face. "It's not actually such a bad idea," she added, smirking. "If it keeps your collection out from underfoot, I'm all for it." Ezra rolled his eyes. Kanan sighed at the two of them and shook his head.

"Mind if we have a look at them?" he asked the boy. Ezra shrugged.

"Just don't drop them," he said sternly, tucking the stormtrooper mask under the crook of his arm. "Some of these are older than I am."

"I'll say," Sabine remarked, lifting an old Mandolorian helmet out of the crate and staring at it. "This model is from fifty years ago. Heh, it's older than _you, _Kanan." She grinned at him.

"Hilarious," he muttered, picking up an old phase 1 clone trooper helmet from the mess and scowling at it. "What about this one?" he asked Ezra. The kid cocked his head at it and then looked at Kanan.

"You'd be surprised at how many weird things show up in the market here," he remarked. "I got that at a pawn shop. The clerk said that the yellow paint meant that whoever owned that worked under General Kenobi." He nodded at the helmet for emphasis.

"He got that right," Kanan muttered, replacing it.

"Where'd you get this?" Sabine asked suddenly, holding up an old, dingy, dented gray helmet and turning to Ezra. "I've never seen a helmet like this. Is this some sort of shock trooper mask?" She gave her friend a questioning look. Kanan, however, sucked in a breath.

This helmet was more reminiscent of the stormtrooper helmets than the one he'd looked at was. It had a rounded top and a straight visor like that of the trooper helmet, with a protruding chin piece held in place by two screws placed on each side of the head. It was a dull, mottled, grayish color, covered all over with scratches, stains and scorch marks. There were black tally marks written all over the front of the face piece, accented by the ring of yellow paint bordering the visor. And although the entire visor was pitch black now, Kanan's mind's eye could still see the glowing blue that had once covered the eyes.

"Be careful with that!" Ezra shouted, jerking Kanan out of his reverie. He resurfaced in time to see his padawan snatch the helmet out of Sabine's hands and clutch it to his chest, the stormtrooper mask lying forgotten on the floor. The girl put up her hands in mock surrender.

"Wow, didn't mean to rile you up, kid," she remarked. "Just curious. Why the sudden outburst, anyway?" Ezra turned the helmet around so that he was looking at its face and stared at it forlornly.

"Let's just say… this one is special," he said simply. Kanan felt his stomach drop at these words. He thought he knew where this was going…

"What… what's so special about it?" he asked cautiously, praying that his instincts were wrong and it _wasn't _what he thought it was.

Ezra's reply killed that hope.

"It was my dad's," he said softly, staring at it wistfully. "It was a part of his armor when he fought in the Clone Wars. It… it's one of the only things I have left of him…" He hugged it to his chest. Kanan, meanwhile, felt as if his chest were collapsing.

_By the Force…_

"Look, can we stop talking about this?" Ezra said irritably, placing the two helmets back in the box and scowling at them. "They're just helmets, anyway. It's not like you guys actually find my weird hobby interesting. No use in boring you anymore." He handed the datapad to Kanan, put the Mandolorian helmet Sabine had fished out back in the crate, and closed the lid. "Now, canI _please _be done now?"

Kanan's face was unreadable when he nodded. Ezra, however, didn't dwell on it. He turned and scurried up the ladder, more than a little eager to get away. Bolting down the hall, he burst into his room and slammed the door shut, breathing hard. For a long time, he just sat there in the half-light, listening intently to the sound of his own breathing and trying to clear his head. Memories came unbidden to the surface… memories about his life before, when his parents were there and he didn't have to worry about the constant running and hiding that he had done every since they were taken. He could hear his father's voice in the back of his head, singing in some foreign language while Ezra attempted to assemble a model starfighter. He could see his mother's laughing face; feel his father ruffling his hair affectionately. He could smell the musty scent of his mother's clothes after a long day out on the plains.

The memories just made his chest ache.

XXX

At long length, the door to Ezra's room opened, and the next thing he knew, Kanan was sitting down on the floor beside him. His father's helmet was clutched in his hands. Ezra glanced at it, and then at him, before looking away again. His hands began to shake.

"That's the first helmet I ever collected," he whispered. "When my dad was taken away… they ransacked our house. They took so many of our things, and I-I thought that they were going to leave me with nothing to remind me of them. I managed to save a few things, though, including that." He turned again to look at the helmet. "That's my most treasured possession, you know."

Kanan chuckled sadly. "I can imagine…" he murmured, staring at it. His eyes were pensive, if not a little worried. Leaning forward a little, Ezra eyed him with concern. "Did your father tell you where he got this?" the Jedi continued.

Ezra stared at him, dumbfounded. "I already said that it was his…" he began haltingly. "He was a republic soldier during the Clone Wars. The helmet was part of his uniform. Why?"

"No reason," he replied quickly.

An awkward silence stretched between them.

"For the record," Kanan finally said, "I think your father would be really proud of you." Ezra glanced at him.

"Why?" he murmured.

Kanan smiled kindly. "Because I am."

Tears pricked at Ezra's eyes. Turning away sharply, he wiped his face, hoping that Kanan wouldn't see. The hand that came to rest on his shoulder suggested that he had. Ezra wrapped his arms around himself, finding that he was unable to say anything else. Not that he needed to, though.

The two sat together in companionable silence for a short while after that, each lost in their own private thoughts. Despite the initial awkwardness, Ezra was kind of glad that Sabine had discovered his collection. It had given him a chance to think about all of the things that he had once treasured without being trapped by an agonizing pain. He silently thanked her, vowing to do so out loud in person the next chance he got.

Eventually, though, all good things have to end. After a short while, Kanan climbed to his feet and turned towards the door. "We should get back to work," he remarked quietly.

Ezra sighed. "Yeah…" He held out his hand for the helmet. Kanan placed it back in the boy's hands. Ezra didn't notice the nervous, somewhat uneasy glance that he gave it while passing it back to its owner. "Hey, thanks for the talk," Ezra added, grinning. "It helped."

"Good." Kanan smiled back. Throwing a mock-salute, Ezra got up and exited the room, helmet in hand.

For a few moments, the Jedi stood alone in the room, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. The image of the helmet kept jumping up to the forefront of his mind. Of all the things he had thought of, what that helmet told him was the last thing that he would have expected to learn about Ezra's father.

He wondered if Ezra knew that his father's helmet was the exact same type worn by republic commando clone troopers. Probably not.

It was definitely something to think about, though.

**Yes, I was describing Gregor's helmet.**

**I really don't think that Gregor is dead. There have been a lot of characters in Star Wars that have survived **_**way **_**worse than what supposedly killed him. Darth Maul lived through getting cut in half. Rahm Kota survived falling several hundred feet out of the window of an aerial TIE fighter factory – **_**and didn't even have any nerve damage except for his eyes. **_**Han survived several months of being trapped in a carbonite case, Meetra was cut off from the Force and lived through it, and Echo lived through that explosion at the citadel that would have blown anyone to bits. Gregor being alive isn't far-fetched at all.**

**If Ephraim is a clone trooper, and if he is a clone trooper who was already introduced in TCW, I want him to be Gregor. That would be cool. That's why I portrayed him as Gregor here, even though I know that he probably isn't. 'Cause Gregor is amazing, and alive until proven dead (in my mind).**

**Review!**


	2. Author's note

SCENE: _PHANTOM GHOST _MESS HALL, HYPERSPACE.

[ENTER LT. BASIL (me), EZRA BRIDGER, SABINE WREN AND KANAN JARRUS]

ME: "Hello to you, my dear readers!"

EZRA [crosses arms and scowls at me]: "Can you hurry this up? We're due at Lothal any minute, and I doubt dragging along a crazy writer is going to do anything good for our mission."

ME: [rolls eyes]: "Yes, Ezra, I'm aware of that. I'm the author; I'm the one who decided on that. You'll arrive in Lothal when I say so and no sooner!"

SABINE: "Watch out Ezra, it sounds like she means business."

[Ezra glares at her]

ME: "Yeah, if you're not nice to me, then I can just put you in another fanfiction and kill you!"

EZRA [paling]: "Hey, I didn't mean it like that…"

ME [laughing]: "I'm kidding. I don't like killing off characters unless they die canonically. So far, you haven't. You're safe. For now."

EZRA [voice cracks]: "_For now?! _What do you mean, _for now?!_"

KANAN [clears throat]: "Can we just get to the point?"

ME: "Ah, yes, the point… what was that again…?"

SABINE: "Future chapters in _Memento_."

ME: "Right! Yeah. Okay."

[Ezra and Kanan simultaneously facepalm]

ME: "Anyway, I just wanted to inform you guys that _Memento _is remaining a one-shot for the time being. I want to focus my work on _Hope and Power _and _Shadows of the Future _first."

EZRA: "So, what, Galen Marek and Luke Skywalker are more important than us?"

ME [sighing]: "No, they just have seniority because I started working on their stories before I even knew that _Rebels _was coming out."

KANAN [raises eyebrows]: "For someone who is giving those stories seniority, you've sure been writing a lot of one-shots."

[Awkward silence]

[More awkward silence]

ME: "Don't diss the muse! I can't help it if my imagination has ADD."

SABINE: "That's not even possible."

ME: "I don't care."

KANAN: "Basil. Focus."

ME: "Right."

[Pause]

EZRA: "We don't have all day, you know."

[I use the powers of imagination to summon Zack Fair, who promptly casts a silencing spell on Ezra before warping back to Final Fantasy VII]

KANAN: "Okay, that was uncalled for."

EZRA: "Mmpf! Brrrfff!"

ME: "Don't worry, it won't last very long. Zack's melee attacks are better than his magic – Ezra will be able to talk again in a minute."

SABINE: "Admit it; you were showing off."

ME [sheepishly]: "Well… maybe just a little bit… heh."

[Another pause]

ME: "ANYWAY! _Memento _is probably not going to be made into multi-chap, and if it is, it won't be until after I've gone through at least chapter 10 of _Hope and Power _and chapter 5 of _Shadows of the Future. _To you readers who wanted me to make this into a big story… sorry. My muse is vast, but not limitless."

EZRA [grinning]: "Hey, the spell wore off."

ME: "Told you so."

SABINE: "Sooo… anything else?"

ME: "One more thing." [I look out of the computer screen to look the readers in the eye] "I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and/or followed my story. I swear, this one is actually the most popular one that I've written! My stuff has a tendency to be overlooked, and I am so glad that all of you took the time to read it. It means a lot to me." [smiles]

KANAN: "Is that it?"

ME: "Yep. It was nice talking to you three." [I grin at them. Kanan and Sabine grin back while Ezra scowls]. "Just a warning, though; from this point on, _Rebels _is only going to get more popular. And with popularity come the crazy fangirls."

[Kanan and Sabine blanch. Ezra looks nervous].

ME: "Ah. I see you've heard the stories."

[All three nod, looking somewhat sick]

ME: "Well, then I guess you know what's coming. Just between you and me, though, you might want to take Captain Rex's example and carry around a blaster wherever you go. Set to stun, of course… killing fans is bad karma."

KANAN [nods]: "We'll keep that in mind."

ME: "Good." [I wave at them] "Well, goodbye for now! The real world beckons."

EZRA: "Hang on a… what are you talking about? This _is _the real world!"

ME: "You just keep thinking that, kid. Bye!" [I warp through the computer screen back to reality].


End file.
